Lame brain ideas that stew up in my noggin to impulsive projects. Ideas of non-existent dohickies or nice to have things. Sure you could buy something already made but there is more fun in trying to build it.

Search This Blog

Lowes Art Easel

Here is my art easel following the plans from Lowes Creative Ideas. I liked the design of the easel because it looked very sturdy and looked like it can take a lot of abuse from a toddler.

The easel was easy to build and really did not cost as much as the estimated cost if you substitute for cheaper materials.
To bring down the cost I did the following

Used 1/2 inch plywood for the easel back board instead of 3/4. The 1/2 inch is strong and stiff enough.

Substituted for the cheap not even sure if they are pine or douglas fir boards instead of Poplar for the legs and trough. The boards were white and not super straight and filled with knots, but if you search the stack, you can find a few that are "good enough".

Bought a 2'x4' laminated MDF sheet for the art board from a local hardware store. The plan showed a 4'x8' hardboard; a bit overkill when the artboard is only 19"x25".

Used fishing line and swivels instead of chain attached to screws. The project materials list 15ft. of weldless steel chain. Aside from the aforementioned 4'x8', the easel needs just about a foot or less of chain to tether the locking pin.

If you are an avid fisherman and have big game tackle, you can attach the locking pin as I did. Simply drill a hole just big enough to fit the barrel of a large barrel swivel. If the ring on the swivel is a bit larger than the barrel, use pliers to squish the ring slightly to the size of the barrel. Then use a brad/nail/or a very thick solid stainless steel wire leader driven through the wood to pin the ring that is burried in the hole (the same way some wooden fishing lures are made, wish I could have found a link). Here are some pictures if my horrible wording is confusing.

﻿

In the above picture you can see the nail on the left. That nail goes through the ring of swivel. That prevents the swivel from being pulled out. Then just attach the easel locking pin with a thick leader. I used 250lb mono.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My friend, Ross, wanted to fix his fishing pole guides but did not have all the necessary equipment. Luckily, he had a friend that had rod building equipment. I had mentioned to my friend that one day I would like to wrap a custom pole. So my friend said hey look at the stuff you would need. The most expensive piece of equipment was the rod dryer. His friend's dryer was retail bought at some online fishing store, I want to say Cabela's but I am unsure of that. The dryers can be pricey. So my friend and I looked up cheap DIY alternatives. We found many and the concept was the same. Slow rotating motor with a cup to hold the end of the rod. Here is our take on a dryer. Some of the parts to make this was given to me by Ross, thanks dude.

When my wife got her canoe, there were only a few instructions on the net for building stands. There were many pictures of PVC canoe stands but not much, if any, detailed instructions on making them. Here is my shot at a detailed tutorial (this was also on a site that is no more that I had awhile back).

Easy to make canoe stands made out of PVC pipes. These stands have rope padding in place of the standard foam padding I have seen. Personally, I think the rope looks better than foam.

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility if your stand fails to do its job or if you get hurt making the stands. I am writing this because seems like every project has a disclaimer because someone somehow screws up.

Getting ReadyMaterials The following items were purchased from Home Depot except for the rope which was purchased …

My wife seen an episode on the Food Network where pulled pork was made with Coca-Cola and condensed milk. I did not get to see that episode but the soda and condensed milk pulled pork sounded really good. She forgot the recipe from the episode so we looked up recipes. From what we had on hand, we based our recipe of that from Crock Pot Coca-Cola Pulled Pork. We were not sure what to expect, but were pleasantly surprised and pleased with how the pulled pork turned out. Here is how we made ours.

Ingredients
(Rough estimates as we just threw stuff in)1 (5-7 lb) pork shoulder2 tablespoons garlic, minced1 cup onions, diced (not sure if necessary to cut up in little pieces)1 teaspoon black pepper1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon sambal (chili pepper paste)3 teaspoons liquid smoke (I like smoky flavored stuff)2 liter Coca-Cola1 14oz can condensed milk1 barbecue sauce of choiceDirections
Cut up the onions and garlic, although i think this may be unnecessary since they will be thrown out after cooking.…

About Me

Father of two most awesomest children. Aside from being a play fixture for my kids, I'm a dreamer by day and tinkerer by night. Well later in the night when the kids go to bed. Notice I said bed and not sleep. Little buggers don't sleep right away. Too bad there is no FDA approved magic sleeping candy for kids.